First edition. xii, 374pp, with tissue-guarded plate frontispiece and three further plate illustrations. In original publisher's brown cloth, highly decorated with an illustration of a Native American beside a camp fire, gilt on upper board, gilt titles on spine, blind embossed on rear board. 12mo. Boards are worn, rubbed to fraying and rounded on corners and spine ends. Upper text block edge dust darkened. Hint of toning to endpapers and faintly and occasionally throughout. Previous owner's label on front paste down, indicating the the volume was once in the collection of Jabez Dickey (perhaps Judge Jabez Dickey, 1838-1915 of Richland County Ohio). One signature loosening and offset.
An extremely hard to find volume on the story of the notorious pirate Captain William Kidd. Kidd is presented as complex character and his early days as a merchant seaman and later as a privateer are covered. Volume also explorers the social and cultural conditions which made piracy possible and looks at its repurcussions.
